"Preface" [2016] ELECD 1249; in Breau, C. Susan; Samuel, L.H. Katja (eds), "Research Handbook on Disasters and International Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) xiii

Book Title: Research Handbook on Disasters and International Law

Editor(s): Breau, C. Susan; Samuel, L.H. Katja

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781784717391

Section Title: Preface

Number of pages: 2

Extract:

Preface


Law governing disasters is undergoing a formative period in terms of its development
and reach in parallel with increasing efforts by the international community to respond
more effectively to the increasing number and intensity of a diverse spectrum of
disasters.
Much of the scholarship and specialist legal development to date has focused on
international disaster response/relief law which is primarily concerned with the actual
disaster event as well as its immediate aftermath. Whilst of incredible importance, not
least to affected states and persons, this is only one aspect of the disaster cycle. The
latter is also concerned with ideally preventing disasters from occurring in the first
place or, where this is not possible, seeking to mitigate their effects should they occur,
such as through effective preparedness and due diligence. Equally, the disaster cycle is
concerned with the longer-term reconstruction and reparation element of disasters
which, in turn, can feed back into issues of prevention and mitigation for future disaster
events.
Consequently, this Handbook has sought to contribute to existing scholarship and
understanding by expanding the analysis to each element of the disaster cycle, adopting
a broad approach to the meaning of disasters in the process. In doing so, the editors
fully recognise that the Handbook is incomplete in the sense that it was simply not
possible, whether due to contributor availability or the potential vastness of the breadth
and scope of law governing disasters, to include all of the topics that they would have
wished to (45 ...